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Tips, tricks, and advice on getting a sewn product idea into development and manufacture.
Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services. Hello and thank you for tuning in to our podcast today. And our guest today is Kyla Sayre of Lefty Productions, which is a California-based manufacturer who can do both domestic and foreign production. We're going to ask and answer questions that are common to new designers about getting to manufacture. So let's just start things off by, Kyla, tell us a little bit about who you are, how long you've been doing this, and how you got to where you are today.
Kyla Sayre: [00:00:39] Of course. And thank you so much for having me today on the show. I'm super excited to be here. Answer all of the questions that you have for me throughout this podcast. And as a bit of background about me, I'm the Director of Business Development for both Lefty Production Company and Stitch Texas, and on a daily basis, I connect with brands to help them with development and production assistants, going through different costing exercises and processes to see if domestic or overseas production would be a better fit for their brand, and all the costs and minimums that just go on into it. And this is about my fourth year in this specific role, but I've been in the industry for about ten years now altogether.
Heather Zager: [00:01:22] Okay. And what did you do prior to this four years?
Kyla Sayre: [00:01:26] Prior to this, I was actually in a lot of different places in the industry, so I did more of the retail side of things, but also wholesale. So I worked at the World Trade Center in Dallas for a while in a showroom. So, definitely a lot of different sides of things, which is nice because every single different side of the business goes into helping you understand the industry as a whole.
Heather Zager: [00:01:46] Yeah, that's exactly why I was curious with, before Lefty what you did. So perfect. Okay, that makes good sense. One question I have, I get this a lot is what is the difference between a factory, a manufacturer, an agency, a wholesaler, and which one is Lefty in all of those?
Kyla Sayre: [00:02:05] Absolutely. So a factory itself is really the facility where your goods are manufactured. So actually the warehouse where all of the cut-and-sew production happens. A manufacturer themselves is usually the entity that will own the factories. And they can also outsource or contract out some of the production. An agency is a bit different in itself that you can kind of look at an agency as a broker in the sense of they don't have their own in-house setup, ever. They're truly using their network of factories and facilities to connect with, to really outsource your production, which makes it kind of tricky because they don't have a ton of like, skin in the game, in a sense. Control over the factories and the actual quality that's being produced.
Heather Zager: [00:02:55] Right.
Kyla Sayre: [00:02:56] And then the last option, wholesaler, it's a little bit different because that's more people or brands who have goods that they sell to retail shops at a wholesale price that are then marked up to the retailer. So your cost that you'd get from manufacturer or factory would be lower than wholesale. So you'd mark that up to wholesale. And then as a wholesaler they would retail it on top of that.
Heather Zager: [00:03:22] Right.
Kyla Sayre: [00:03:23] So for Lefty specifically, we are a manufacturer who owns their own factories domestically.
Heather Zager: [00:03:31] Okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:03:32] However, we do have some contractors we work with just where there are different sort of specialties or levels of expertise. For example, we have denim contractors where their bread and butter is doing denim work and we have a network of facilities as well we work with. And then overseas we play a little bit more of the role of an agent, but we're a lot more hands-on than an agent ever would be. So we have relationships with preexisting factories overseas that have really high consistent quality that we have vetted. We have boots on the ground. Check them out. We'll maintain that relationship and make sure everything is done properly. But it's really great for overseas production to be in that kind of situation. Because it's really hard as a brand starting out to get into those bigger factories on your own. When you have similar volumes. So using a facilitator like us, we're able to bundle your project alongside other ones to help with minimums, costs, all of those things we're looked at as the client, not you. So we have a lot more buying power.
Heather Zager: [00:04:40] That totally makes sense. And when you were talking about I was thinking of actually materials sourcing that if you are working with someplace like Lefty Productions, well, you may have another client that's using a similar material and you can just group that and everybody gets a little bit better deal because you can buy one roll that everybody can share.
Kyla Sayre: [00:04:58] Absolutely, definitely. We get a lot of factories, see a lot of fabrics that are shared across lots of different clients. Because if there's a phenomenal swim fabric, everybody's going to want it. Crinkle swim fabric is so popular right now. And we have like six brands all utilizing the same thing. And that all helps each other even though they don't know the other five brands, but, beneficial for everyone.
Heather Zager: [00:05:25] There's space for everyone for sure, because the styles are different and the brand name is different, and the size and fit may be a different range that they meet or satisfy in the market. And so it works out to do it that way. That's a great feature. And I asked you about the wholesaler because sometimes I've had clients that want to brand a garment. They don't really want to make the garment. So talking a little bit about wholesaling is great because they can go in a different direction of purchasing blanks that are already made and then do their branding on top of that and sell. And sometimes that's a good way to just start and get your name out there. You can find a source for blank garment designs to be able to do that with. So that's perfect. And then Lefty kind of falls into a couple of different factors outside of wholesaling.
Kyla Sayre: [00:06:12] Absolutely. And blanks are a great way to start your brand without having to invest a ton of time and money into the development process. And the t-shirt's a t-shirt at the end of the day, if you're not trying to reinvent the wheel on that or the hoodie. Blanks are a great route to go. Get some funding into your business and then reinvest it into more custom styles down the line so that white labeling side of things, and at least for us, we do have a blanks catalog that we offer. And it is more customizable than a lot of blanks companies usually are, because they will tell you, okay, you have these ten colors to pick from. That's it. You can just decorate. We make everything prepared for dyeing. So PFD so you can dye them to any Pantone color number you would like.
Heather Zager: [00:06:59] So you do offer. Yeah okay. That's super cool. That's really smart. So okay you have kind of a one-stop thing to some degree depending on the needs or. Yeah that's excellent okay, perfect. And then on another topic, I know a lot of times people ask me what an MOQ is, and it is seems to be the prevailing question of a new designer is that they think that they have to hit a certain MOQ. And this is true to some degree, but that's not the only factor that works into getting into manufacture. When you have a design idea. So can you speak a little bit about what an MOQ is, where it's important, where it's not important just for the new designer audience with that particular item in mind that they're going to ask.
Kyla Sayre: [00:07:46] Absolutely. Minimum order quantities is definitely a bit of a loaded question. So that's what MOQ stands for, minimum order quantity. So some factories or manufacturers will set a minimum on the amount of pieces per style that you have to order, because it has to make it worth it for them to take on your project. However, a lot of brands that are starting out are smaller and MOQs scare them really easily. And MOQs are definitely something that is always a conversation, and it should be with your factory, because the more styles you can add on and the more you can look at your project as a whole, it could give you some power to negotiate and see if you can start with a lower minimum. And I definitely give the advice to not be scared if somebody's website says, oh, we have a 300 unit MOQ and you need to run 200 units, float that project by them, because it may be the same situation that they have a few other brands that are running very similar styles and they can make it work. And it's never a bad thing to just establish the relationship. Get to know the factory.
Kyla Sayre: [00:08:53] Maybe if you can't hit it today, you can hit it in a week, you can hit it in two years or whatever that time might be for you and your brand. And also it plays a big role with fabric sourcing. If you're doing overseas manufacturing, minimums fluctuate significantly more because when you produce overseas, you're getting more of a full-package situation. So your overseas manufacturers sourcing all the materials for you, making all of your tags, all of your trims are custom to you. And if you want it custom-milled to your specifications, to your custom Pantone, your custom print, the minimums you're getting are from the fabric mills themselves. Since it's all overseas and kind of one neighborhood, they're all next to each other, so you have to hit the minimums from the fabric mills rather than when you produce domestically. You are typically sourcing from a fabric vendor. That's a third party that source directly from the mills. They hit the minimums and then just sold pieces to you and to the next person. If the fabric itself has a high minimum, it'll force you to do a higher quantity.
Heather Zager: [00:10:11] Yeah okay. Okay. That makes a lot more sense. So US sourcing is sections of a larger amount, which allows you to do lower minimums. But overseas, they're going to be working directly with the mill. And that's where the minimums come from at that point. Okay. Yeah.
Kyla Sayre: [00:10:29] Absolutely.
Heather Zager: [00:10:31] So why would a domestic manufacturer even put on their website that they have an MOQ of, say, 300? Is that just to give people sort of a ballpark idea of what their level of capabilities are or how, yeah, you understand what I'm asking there.
Kyla Sayre: [00:10:47] Definitely. And those minimums that domestic manufacturers really set are because nobody is making money off 50 units or 100 units, even if they mark up 50 units, $10 a unit, like what, you're making $500 at that point. Like that's not really a sustainable business model. To really be worth it for somebody to take on a project, there has to be a sector of like profit there. But, everyone has to start somewhere. So a lot of the times, if a manufacturer is willing to take on a lower volume with you, they're really believing in you and they're like, okay, we're making this work for you in the hopes of giving you this high quality. So then you can turn this around, place future orders that do have higher minimums, and we can just continue to grow the relationship. Right. And also minimums are typically where people's competitive pricing sits. So at least for us domestically our competitive pricing really begins around a 300-unit minimum order quantity per style. But that can be split into multiple colorways and sizes because we can keep them all together. But anything lower than that, you'll just see a pretty significant increase in your cost per unit. And also there are a lot of set fees that are blanket across domestic manufacturing, like having an engineer come out and change the tension on all the machines and cut layout fees and all of those things. When you're doing 50 units versus 300 are just spread across way less and the cost is really higher.
Heather Zager: [00:12:26] Okay. So setup costs are mostly contributing to that. When you say making the price competitive, are competitive to who or to what, to other manufacturers or just competitive to another MOQ that, you know, instead of 500.
Kyla Sayre: [00:12:42] Competitive to the pricing within other manufacturers in the same area.
Heather Zager: [00:12:47] Okay, okay. In the same area. That's good. Yeah. I have noticed some differences between like East Coast and West Coast or Midwest. There's just different practices, different ways that they handle things, different pricing structures. So it can vary quite significantly just across the US.
Kyla Sayre: [00:13:02] Absolutely.
Heather Zager: [00:13:03] Okay. Perfect. That's very clear and very informational. Thank you. Another question I have is I know Lefty can start with any level of preparation from people that just have, you know, a rough napkin sketch all the way to somebody who has a completed tech pack. But is there anything other than budget that you recommend new designers be prepared with? Just as a general rule of thumb.
Kyla Sayre: [00:13:29] Go shopping and get reference samples. That is the number one thing that I stress to people is have physical representations of what you want to make, even if it's, you have this one shirt that you love the fabric on it, but you like the fit of this one and the neckline on this one, the sleeve length of this one. It is so much easier for a manufacturer to see a reference garment and pull a piece of it and merge it into your custom design, rather than you trying to verbally describe it to them. Apparel is like a foreign language. It really is. There's a lot that goes into it. The terminology is very different. And showing something is a lot easier to explain what you really need out of it than anything else. And for grade and fit, that's important too, because if you have a brand you love the way the shirt fits you trust it. You always know what size to buy. That brand did the hard work for you. There's no reason to make it harder for yourself when you've already been inspired by all these different pieces that you've collected over the years.
Heather Zager: [00:14:40] Right, that makes sense. I have done a lot of work on a course that I have. It's called the Design Concepting Course, and I include a guide with that course. That is just a step-by-step, how to think through the process and get your concept out of your head and do it in a way that's just using images. You don't need to know how to draw. I just need to know how to put something onto a board and annotate or add images and describe the details just with sourcing pictures or with garments that you already have, or things that you've found in store. Even size ranges and sizing and fit for getting all those details in there and getting your thoughts figured out. So perfect. Okay, that's a great suggestion. So also what I do is I suggest to my clients that no matter how they start, they need to end with at least a tech pack and a pattern of their design. So if they need to shift production, they aren't scrambling to collect information at the last minute. And this may not be something that they face until, you know, they've scaled and landed themselves a bit in the market. But when you're talking about overseas production and them reaching out in their neighborhood for mills and labels and tags, and you're not necessarily going to, if you had to shift manufactures, you're not going to have that information. You're sort of going to have to reinvent the wheel to some degree. Is that kind of a true statement to you, or is it easy to get that information even from overseas manufacturers, if you do need to shift production, or are you always recommending to have a tech pack and a sample and all of that information in your own hands as a new designer.
Kyla Sayre: [00:16:13] It's always great to have that information in your own hands and keep it for your records. What you need in order to be considered production-ready is so dependent on the manufacturer you end up working with.
Heather Zager: [00:16:26] Yeah, okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:16:28] Domestically generally at least what we require for Lefty and I'd say at least most domestic manufacturers require our digital DXF graded patterns. Alongside a pattern card or cutters must. A tech pack would be extra. And then a confirmed sample. If we go overseas, I'd say just a tech pack and then a confirmed sample. What happens is the overseas manufacturer will be the ones to build out the pattern files, if you just have a tech pack and they won't give them back to you. And it's kind of a security blanket for them in a sense. And also oftentimes they'll build them out in a software that's just not really translatable domestically. And it's not even worth it for you to get it back. But it's great if you can build that out to begin with, because that also sets you up for success a lot, because it is hard having that communication and back and forth trying to develop a product straight overseas. It is so much more beneficial to you, especially the first time around, to hand it over on a silver platter and be like, okay, here are my patterns, here are my sew-by samples. Here's my tech pack. There's no questions at this point at all. They know what they're making. It's always been a hurdle that I've seen when I talk to brands that exclusively produce overseas, and they always have and they have nothing.
Kyla Sayre: [00:17:57] They don't even have tech packs. They have no patterns, but they've been in production on these products for years and been selling them for years. And then they consider moving domestically, whether it's for sustainability reasons. Shipping costs are really high right now, whatever it may be. We have to start over. They're pretty much in the same spot as if they would have just presented me with a legging that they bought from Lululemon and wanted to recreate it. Like there's no difference at that point. We still have to redevelop it, resource all the materials, redo all of these things. And even if you do have the contacts from where you sourced your raw materials, you can't really guarantee that those contacts are going to be there or in stock forever. As long as you have the fiber content, the weight, and you know what you're using, it can always be resourced. But protecting yourself is important. And being prepared to diversify your supply chain, have multiple manufacturers is never a bad thing because. Having backups, 30 of them is great. There's never too many backups. And having a secure supply chain is crucial for the success of a brand.
Heather Zager: [00:19:11] Right. Absolutely, no that makes a lot of sense. And I think the biggest factor with new designers is. You have to know the dirty underbelly for whatever decision you want to make. If it's domestic, if it's overseas, you have to just know the advantages and disadvantages of each. So when you run into an issue or something and maybe it's not even an issue, but your brand is growing and for some reason they can't meet your minimum quantities that you need and you have to shift or whatever the reason may be. And then you find yourself in this position where you kind of have to backtrack and start over. That is a reality that when you go somewhere else. It's almost like starting another new job. There's just a period of time that you have to get your feet back under you because everybody does do it a little bit differently. So knowing what those differences are helps you to come to terms with it if it happens to you, and just be prepared that you're going to have to do some shifting. So that's really good information. Very cool. Another question I have is when Lefty does onboarding with a new client, is the process to sew a sample for the client to approve for you to be able to give costing. And then if that's all good, they go into a production agreement. And what is the process from there? I know some manufacturers have like a monthly subscription, you know, where does that begin. But the development part of the process leave off because presumably that's at an hourly rate to some degree. Can you elaborate and expand a little bit more? Maybe I'm asking my question a lot not to specifically let me know if I need to clarify, but it's a process. I mean, my clients get into a manufacture wherever they may be, and it's like, what happens from there? So I have you here for a domestic manufacturer. And what is that going to look like to somebody that's a new designer.
Kyla Sayre: [00:21:06] When a new designer is speaking with manufacturers, I've seen a pretty consistent trend that they have a hard time getting production quotes before the manufacturer has sewn a sample. And I feel like sometimes that's totally understandable. And in my opinion, sometimes it's not. At least for us, we do a ton of swim, a ton of active in our facility. You can show us a reference image of a bikini top, and we can tell you how long it'll take us to sew it and give you very, very good understanding of what specifically you will be spending on your cost per unit for your bulk manufacturing. However, all the little tweaks you make to your product definitely do change things, but at least you're not surprised by cost moving forward.
Heather Zager: [00:21:51] Right, okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:21:52] But then there's also things like a very tailored dress or jacket that just has a lot more seams and functionality to it, that that's totally understandable that someone will need to sew a sample to time it out to see how long it'll actually take them to make it, in order to present you with a labor cost. Okay, but at this point, we really are just talking about labor costs. All of the raw materials are usually separate domestically and the clients are responsible for sourcing them, or at least they'll be sourced later and costed out later. Whereas in overseas we look at costing way differently since it is full package, we really, really, really want our brands to come into us telling us what they need. So tell us you need this order volume. Your target is this cost because you want to retail it for this, and these are your competitors. And start thinking about what's most important to you, because we can look at costing overseas two ways and domestically. But if you have a target order volume that you're willing to commit to, you're like, I can only take on X amount of inventory. That's the most important thing to me. You kind of have to take the higher cost sometimes because you can only take on so much inventory.
Kyla Sayre: [00:23:16] And that's what's the highest priority versus if you have a certain target cost in mind, because you have to hit a certain margin for this to make sense for you. We can look at how many units you need to produce in order to hit that. And it's worth it because you have that margin there. And then also if you tell us you're like, okay, I want to make a t-shirt and I want to sell it for $400, we can make you a quality of a t-shirt we're selling for 400. Or if you tell us you want to sell it for 45, we're making very, very different choices. And the fabrics are saying the order volume we're doing, the quality of the stitching, the tags we're choosing. So we try to make it to how you need it to be made. And I think that's kind of a hard thing for people to wrap their brain around because like, okay, what's your cost? But we're kind of shooting in the dark. We don't want to source a $400 worth of fabric for you. If your target cost is 45, like, we're just going to present you with the options that will get you to your target cost.
[00:24:18]
Heather Zager: [00:24:19] Right, okay. That makes sense. So for overseas manufacture you have to go in knowing exactly what it is, what your numbers are and what you need to achieve. But otherwise for a domestic manufacturer, a representative image of something. And if it isn't something that Lefty has done before or feels like they can just give a really good estimate for costing, then maybe at that point you would sew a sample and kind of figure out the details. And along with that, if somebody wanted a sample sewn, even independent of costing just to see, how do they check your quality of work, I guess. Would you sew them a sample anyway so that they can just go yep, this looks right. And maybe they have representative samples, but they've never seen a sample in their vision of what they're designing. Yeah, do you do that for them at that point then so that they can have in hand their first version?
Kyla Sayre: [00:25:12] Absolutely. We can definitely commit to just sewing samples for brands to begin with, because throwing down a large deposit on production is really, really hard when you haven't seen the quality of the manufacturer you're working with. And it's hard to just chat with somebody on the phone or on video, or even visit the facility and be able to fully trust what they've said. Like you do want to see quality and what they've done. It's always tricky for me too, because I'm like, we work with all of these big brands you probably have in your closet, but we sign so many NDAs and we're very, very serious about our NDAs. So we can't share a lot of these brands. But, we're happy to show you our quality and start with just samples and just charge you for a sample for now to get the ball rolling. And companies that are willing to do that, it shows that they're confident that they're going to give you a good quality that you're going to love and then want to keep going. We don't want to push you to commit to too much right away. That's not good for either of us. One step at a time is totally possible, and it helps you confirm your production costs.
[00:26:15]
Heather Zager: [00:26:15] Okay. And then just quickly, this was a question I had. So in that development cycle there at the beginning, is that an hourly rate with Lefty. And then when you're in production there's a subscription a monthly cost to some degree. And what does that include. How do you section that out?
Kyla Sayre: [00:26:31] So the way that we break down our costing is in three separate chunks. And I know other companies do it very differently, but how we do it specifically is for the development portion of the process. We do have a development package we offer if you're starting from scratch. And it includes like the first round of bundled services. So your pattern, your technical illustrations, your first sample, first fitting, first round of revisions like minimum what we know everyone's going to go through. And then beyond that, we also do offer all of our development services, all of Kartli, at their hourly or set rates, just depending on what specifically you need and also where you're coming in in the process. Because we don't want to backstab if you don't have to. And we have patterns already built, but we just need to grade them or they're paper and we just need to digitize them. Pick and choose what you need. But also it lets you be flexible with your development moving forward. So if you have a t-shirt that short short-sleeved and it's perfect, we're not changing anything, but you want to make it a long-sleeved version. We can just all Kartli do like an hour of pattern adjustments to change that into the long sleeve version. And now you have two styles without having to develop from scratch, which is great.
Heather Zager: [00:27:47] Right.
Kyla Sayre: [00:27:48] And then the second chunk of pricing you'll see is going to be your production pricing. So your cost per unit for the bulk manufacturing. And then the third chunk of pricing you'll see and final chunk of pricing, is we do have a required monthly project management fee is how we look at it.
Heather Zager: [00:28:08] Okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:28:08] So we never want you to be in a position that you're being nickeled and dimed for a time just speaking with your account manager, and we bundle a lot of things alongside it like it covers all of your monthly storage fees. If you do get a storage unit in LA for rolls of fabric to be more expensive than that monthly fee alone, and you will inventory it, hold on to it for future production runs. You'll also get things like standing-by weekly phone calls with your account manager. Because there should never be a situation that you don't know the next time you're going to be speaking. Your production facility always have been set in stone. They have a few hours of special project management time built in there. If you need your account manager to just run an errand for you or whatever it is. So we really made it all-encompassing. And you can also kind of look at it as if you are hiring us on to be your supply chain arm without having to pay somebody fully in-house to do it. And we're fully dialed in with pattern makers and how sample sewers in-house and marker grader, technical designers. If it's all in one place, because the last thing you need to be doing is moving something from a cutter to a sewer to a QC person, and having to chase that down and everyone's fingers at one another.
Heather Zager: [00:29:30] Very good. Okay. No, that's making a lot more sense. Thank you for clarifying on that. Okay. So that is all great information. And I have a couple of just random incidental questions that are fairly quick about lefty productions. Do you source materials and how does that process work if someone does need assistance sourcing materials?
Kyla Sayre: [00:29:49] Absolutely. So when we're working domestically, the way that we handle sourcing, typically our clients will provide the materials to us. So sourcing isn't really included in our baseline services. However we can absolutely assist with it. We just look at it as an additional fee of your account manager's time to assist with that process.
Heather Zager: [00:30:11] Okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:30:12] We just have a lot of people who are ready to go, and we don't want to force you to pay for things that you don't need or resource anything. And that's generally how domestic production works, is everything is very separate. However, when we go overseas, we will source everything for you. So it'll be very full package and we'll counter source based off of what fabric references you can provide to us or whatever is noted in your tech pack, and then give you swatches for your approval. And we'll keep sourcing till we find exactly what you love. If you don't love the first chunk that we present to you. It is very, very, very rare that we're not able to source exactly what somebody is looking for.
Heather Zager: [00:30:52] Right. Perfect. Okay.
Heather Zager: [00:30:54] And how do you decide if something is going to be an overseas project or a domestic project?
Kyla Sayre: [00:30:59] There's usually three main factors that are considered when choosing. The first one is costs. It is way more expensive to do domestic production versus overseas prices are way more competitive. Usually the general rule of thumb difference that I see, which is not applicable across the board, but generally is that the labor cost alone to make something in the US or Los Angeles is either the same or higher than a landed price from overseas. So the landed price would include not just labor but also fabrics, trims, packaging, shipping, duties, everything.
Heather Zager: [00:31:43] Interesting, okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:31:44] Raw materials can easily add on 10, 20, $30 per unit to your cost, so that ends up really being a large difference. The other main difference, I guess the second main difference would be minimum order quantities. Since generally overseas is a little higher versus domestic is lower, sometimes people lean more towards domestic because they can get a more versatile initial offering and see what colors and sizes sell well. Before scaling overseas and investing more into certain units of each one of them. So you're not stuck with a bunch of leftover inventory. And then the last one that usually pushes people is capabilities. Whether or not your project can even be done where you're wanting to get it done.
Heather Zager: [00:32:35] Right. Okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:32:36] And that happens a lot, because there's a lot of products that are not domestic production friendly. Things like wedding dresses are hard or leather goods or bags. It's a little knitwear. You can't do it in the States. So like socks, beanies, things like that. Machinery is pretty exclusively overseas or seamless. And then also things like waterproofing. So if you have a waterproof dry bag, that's exclusively overseas bonded seams also overseas. Very, very minimal people do that in the States. If anyone for some of those products these days. So if your product is something like that, like molded bra cups, any of those things, you're immediately being pushed overseas for your project. If it's a more traditional cut-and-sew apparel item. Absolutely in the US.
Heather Zager: [00:33:28] Okay.
Heather Zager: [00:33:28] And I should mention too, because I feel like there might be people listening to this going, but I've seen, you know, molded bra cups and it says made in the USA. There are factories that are US based that have some of these capabilities, but they're their own brand. They may not necessarily be a factory that you can hire to do your particular design. So that's a distinction there that I just wanted to clarify on.
Kyla Sayre: [00:33:53] Absolutely. And there are still some facilities that do some of these more niche things in the US. I will say it was a lot more prevalent that you could do like leather work in LA before Covid, but since Covid, we're not doing any more leather work in LA, at least for us. Other facilities may, but it's just harder to come by for a lot of these product categories. And also, it's important to think about the fact that domestically it's like one facility and one day we're cut and swim. The next day we're selling a children's dress, the next day we're doing a tote bag, our sewers are very skilled in a lot of things, but they're doing a lot of things. Whereas in overseas the factories are a lot more specialized. There is a swimwear factory, there is a children's wear factory, and that's all they do all day long. So they're very good at what they do. So it's not a bad thing for a facility domestically to tell you know, even if it is a product that could be made here if it's not their expertise. Go overseas for it. We're like, they do this they'll set and the machinery and training to make it beautiful.
Heather Zager: [00:35:01] Yeah okay.
Heather Zager: [00:35:02] That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. You don't want to do poorly.
Heather Zager: [00:35:08] Don't want to do your design poorly and have you be disappointed. Or, you know, when they know that somebody can specialize in it and do it much better and much faster? Yeah, okay. And maybe even for a better cost.
Kyla Sayre: [00:35:18] Yeah, exactly. A way better cost. People already have to charge a lot more for things made in the US. And people pay more for things that are made in the US. But that doesn't mean that that's the best place to get the highest quality.
Heather Zager: [00:35:32] Exactly. Yep. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. So talk a little bit about sustainability and eco-friendly. I feel like they were huge topics a long time ago, maybe ten years ago, maybe just five years ago. And I feel like certifications for sustainability and fair treatment have sort of leveled out and everybody's sort of reached that degree of, this is the new expectation. Is that a true statement? Do you feel like there's still things that people should look for if they want a sustainable factory or eco-friendly fabrics? I mean, speak to that whole genre of thought for a minute if you can, as a manufacturer, representative of a manufacturer.
Kyla Sayre: [00:36:12] Definitely. And sustainability is a really important conversation that I have every single day. And really amazing technologies keep popping up all over the place to make processes and options more eco-friendly and sustainable. And a lot of companies, especially big ones, are moving towards this. It is a hard balance when you're beginning, however, because specialized fabrics like eco-friendly or recycled fabrics come with a higher cost and higher minimum order volume, which is hard for smaller brands to take on. And it's a hard thing to say, but you can't have everything when you start out.
Heather Zager: [00:36:49] Yeah.
Kyla Sayre: [00:36:50] You kind of have to pick what's really important to you. Do you really want to stand on sustainability or what sets your brand apart from others and really rely on that. But. The biggest sustainability factor you can pick with your product is with your material choices. Picking something that's recycled or organic, made from water bottles or it has a special technology to it. That's the best thing you can do and also focus on slow fashion. Not fast fashion. And just investing in higher-quality products. And there are definitely ranges of facilities overseas that will make slower fashion versus fast fashion. And it's definitely reflected in the costs. But specifically overseas. There are a lot of audits, certifications that different factories can have with different sustainable and ethical practices and all of those kinds of things. There are a ton of them, and they are very expensive and very hard to consistently maintain and uphold. So what you really need to do, if that's important to you, if you're like, I have to be in a RAP certified facility, tell your factory that initially. And then they can work accordingly to place it cost it in a RAP certified facility, you're going to have a higher cost and you're going to have a higher minimum order quantity, but you're in that RAP facility. So you can then tell your brand, yes, this is what I'm doing. Here is my information behind it.
Heather Zager: [00:38:17] Yeah.
Kyla Sayre: [00:38:18] But it's just hard to get in there and get all that information. So you just have to set your expectations accordingly right away.
Heather Zager: [00:38:24] I have a friend that got a certification in just ethical practices and eco-friendly and sustainability and everything manufacture for certain products. And she, one day it made a lot of sense to me. She said, you know, eco-friendly and sustainability is not about just finding the right material or just working with a factory that has ethical practices. It is a 100% job to understand and research and know what you're getting into. And so do that research and know what it is you're looking for first. Don't just expect people to explain it all to you. You could take a whole course in it to really understand it, but it might be that if it gets to a point that it's overwhelming as a new designer, then it might be something that you just let go of to some degree. Because what is it that's more important to you? Is it the learning all of that, or is it getting your brand launched and getting something out there? You are on a smaller scale for now, and it's more important to see if your product has any viability in the market first, and then you can start getting into and diving into some of those aspects about sustainability as you grow.
Kyla Sayre: [00:39:38] Definitely. And there's really cool things out there you can do natural-based dyeing. Or, there's a dye house in China that's opening up right now that has zero water waste.
Heather Zager: [00:39:48] Cool, okay.
Kyla Sayre: [00:39:48] Which is great and super sustainable. So things are definitely happening, which is really great. And more things keep popping up.
Heather Zager: [00:39:56] That's wonderful. Okay. That's good. So keeping a pulse on that is still a good thing for new designers to do. That's great. Excellent. So last question I have is you work with new designers quite a bit. They call you or email you. Is there anything that is a common sort of misconception or misnomer that they have that right out of the gate you help them to understand a little bit better, to move forward with understanding the whole process. Just anything that you would suggest. To them to do or research, or just to make things easier to get started?
Kyla Sayre: [00:40:34] Absolutely. I think it all kind of ties back to just knowing where you want the end goal of your brand to be, because people always have a lot of really great ideas, but they don't understand all of the parts that have to go into getting there. And another big thing is timelines. It takes time to make a product. It takes time for you to source fabrics, approve them, approve your colorways, approve prints, make your custom zipper pulls, make your tags, determine your grade, your fit. Like there's a lot of setup things that have to happen when you're just starting out that do take time. Absolutely lead times can be decreased as you proceed, but there's no way you're starting from scratch and getting a delivery in a month. And we deal with a lot of people that ask us of that. And it does also take funding. And you don't have to be the richest person in the world. But understand your budget, understand what you're willing to spend and talk to as many people as possible to see what company is the best fit for you, but also know that you have to invest money into it to be able to get money out of it. And it's hard when you bootstrap things, but it's one step at a time proving your concept and really understanding. Okay, I want to make this molded bra, chat with a lot of people. Molded bra cups have very, very high minimum order volumes. So okay, you have to do 500 units per style, per colorway, per size. And sizes are usually band versus cups. You do like 10,000 units at that point. You could stop in your tracks and be like, okay, this is not feasible, right? The worst thing I see is people develop tech packs kind of blindly without knowing what's coming next.
Kyla Sayre: [00:42:23] Making sure your expectations are at least there that it will make sense for you one day when you get to production.
Heather Zager: [00:42:29] Okay. And that makes sense. And I think that's just sort of a truism of life. What is your goal. And evaluate that against your funding and your time. And it's something that you're giving birth to to some degree and starting and nobody knows about it. And you have to grow it and market it. And it takes work and it takes time. So that's really good, I'm glad you said that because I think that's a really good just overall goal to keep in mind. Is there anything else that you would like to share personally about what you do, or Lefty productions or your process? Anything that I touched on that you want to circle back around to and just build from or anything to add?
Kyla Sayre: [00:43:11] I think the biggest thing is just when you are finding a manufacturer, that's like gold, finding a good one, and it's so much more than hitting a certain cost. It's so much more than choosing the manufacturer. That's the cheapest. Because maybe they're the cheapest, but their communication is awful and their quality control is non-existent. Like it's worth it to spend a little bit more money to get the relationship you need out of a factory, because it's truly a partnership. Like we're really relying on each other to help push each other up and grow and be successful and bounce ideas off of one another and have that clear line of communication open, because these are humans making these garments like things are going to happen that are fully out of our control, and we need to be able to pivot and work with you and just be passionate about what you're doing and be into it and excited about it. Because energy is so contagious, and working with good people and business makes the world of a difference. Yeah, so just chat with everyone and trust your gut. I've heard way too many horror stories out there, and that's honestly why Lefty was even founded, is because our owner, she had her own brand. It was called Moody Mamas, which is maternity line, which is really cute name, and she just kept running into issues and she's like, nope, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to create my own place where we have really high, consistent quality. We're sustainable and ethical. So that's what she did. She no longer has her own brand, but we just help other brands build theirs. And it's called Lefty because our two co-founders were both left-handed.
Heather Zager: [00:44:52] Oh, cute.
Kyla Sayre: [00:44:55] That's the background for the name.
Heather Zager: [00:44:57] Yeah, that's great to know. Yeah. And it's so true because I think a lot of times people, new designers, you have to be good at communicating. You have to realize that the manufacturer is speaking a language they've been speaking for quite a while, and you're the person that's new into their realm. And so having some tolerance of the time frame that it takes and the process that it takes and the things that are going to go around and around and back and forth and you have to at that point, like you said, be passionate about it and just know that it's going to yeah, take some time to get there. But it's a process. And having a manufacturer that is respectful to you and you are to them and the communication is just going and everybody understands and is patient with each other. That is definitely at the end of the day, what makes it work.
Kyla Sayre: [00:45:46] Absolutely.
Heather Zager: [00:45:47] Very good. Well, I think that about wraps it up. So I just want to take a second and thank my listeners for joining us today. You're the reason I'm here. So if you have any comments or questions about this episode or suggestion for a future episode, please email me at heather@madeapparelservices.com. And, Kyla, how do people get a hold of you?
Kyla Sayre: [00:46:08] You can definitely reach out to us via our website so you can just go to www.leftyproductionco.com and we have a link on our website where you can schedule a call directly with me or my team to chat about your brand. We can cost it out, you can brain dump it onto us, and we can kind of help you work through it and point you in the right direction. Absolutely would love to have a conversation with anybody.
Heather Zager: [00:46:33] Excellent. I so appreciate your time and thank you for being here.
Kyla Sayre: [00:46:37] Of course. Thank you for having me.